The Miami ruling is the first to find the company partly responsible in a crash that killed one pedestrian and injured another.
For the first time, Tesla was found liable in a crash of one of its Model S vehicles equipped with its Autopilot feature, reports Aarian Marshall for Wired. A Miami court found the company liable for $200 million in punitive damages and $43 million in compensatory damages for a 2019 Florida Keys crash that killed one person and injured another.
“A jury found the automaker one-third responsible for the crash; it found the driver of the Tesla, who settled with the plaintiffs and testified during the trial, responsible for the other two-thirds,” Marshall adds. “During the three-week Miami trial, lawyers representing the plaintiffs argued that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk created false expectations among drivers about Autopilot’s capabilities.”
The company was not found liable in two 2023 California crashes and settled other lawsuits out of court. Tesla has also faced multiple federal and state investigations into crashes involving its cars and its promotion of the Autopilot feature.
Read the full story: Tesla Found Partly Liable in 2019 Autopilot Death
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